1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bundling systems, and in particular, to systems that can convert a shingled stream of goods into successive bundles of goods.
2. Description of Related Art
Goods made of flexible sheets are often produced in a shingled stream. For example, printed cards or labels may be printed on a web and cut by a rotary die that delivers successive sheets onto a relatively slow conveyor belt. Because of this relatively slow speed, successive sheets are placed atop one another to form a staggered or shingled stream. Other types of equipment can also produce shingled streams. For example, booklets can be produced in a shingled stream by a stapling machine or by other binding machines. Other non-paper goods are also produced in a shingled stream.
These shingled streams usually need to be stacked into bundles having a predetermined number of units. Manually counting and separating the stream into a predetermined count is inefficient and impractical, because these shingled streams are delivered too quickly for human handlers.
Accordingly, automated machines have been designed to separate the shingled stream into predetermined bundles, but even these machines have had difficulty accommodating high flow rates. One known bundling technique allows the shingled stream to fall onto a table and form a stack. After reaching a certain height, the stack is pushed toward an automatic banding machine that ties a band around the stack.
Several difficulties exist with this type of machine. The incoming shingled stream continues to fall onto the table while the stack is being pushed away. Goods delivered during this transition period can get caught in the pushing mechanism. Therefore the pushing mechanism must be made extremely fast, but this increases the likelihood of damage to the goods. Also, separating the stream into bundles having a precise count is rather difficult when the shingled stream flows at a relatively high rate and the pusher must act very quickly.
Accordingly, there is a need for a bundling system that can quickly and accurately separate the shingled stream into stacked bundles having an accurate number of units per stack.